ISRO chairman on GSAT recovery: Working on re-establish contact with satellite

Confirming that Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) communication link with the recently launched GSAT-6A got snapped, Chairman Dr K Sivan on Sunday said that the space agency was making attempts to re-establish contact with the advanced communication satellite.

Stating that ISRO was supposed to perform three orbit-raising manoeuvres to take the satellite from the launch orbit to the designated orbit, he said that while the first two manoeuvres were performed successfully, the communication link with the satellite snapped when the ISRO ground station was gearing up for the third manoeuvre.

The ISRO Chairman asserted that the GSAT-6A satellite is not out of control and they are hoping to reestablish contact with it and added that they know the approximate location of the satellite in space with the help of other satellites and other resources.

The satellite, weighing 2,066-tonne and a lifespan of 10 years was to provide mobile communication through multi-beam coverage. Costing Rs 270 crore, GSAT-6A was also significant for the military for communication purposes in remote and border areas due to the six-metre-wide antenna which is three times broader than those used in communication satellites.

Last year, the backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 failed after the satellite got stuck in the heat shield. It is now declared space debris as it is still roaming in the near-earth orbit and will ultimately fall on the earth.